Neto the Radiant War-God
Celtiberian · deity · Late Iron Age to Roman period · Recorded classification
Name leads with the English phrase 'the Radiant War-God', combining his martial and solar (ray-adorned) aspects. Attested forms: Latin Neto/Neton (Macrobius and votive altars), Celtiberian Neito. He is one of the few Iberian gods preserved in a classical literary source (Macrobius) as well as in epigraphy; equated with Mars.
Domains
- war battle
- sun solar
Epithets
- Neto The war-god of the Celtiberians and Lusitanians, worshipped with martial honoursMacrobius, Saturnalia 1.19; Hispano-Roman inscriptions (primary)
- Neton the Radiant One (Mars Neton, the ray-crowned war-god)Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.19 (primary)
Sources
- Neto (Neton) was a war-god of the Lusitanians and Celtiberians; Macrobius reports that the Accitani (of Acci, Guadix) worshipped a ray-adorned statue of Mars they called Neto, giving him a solar character, and the form 'Neito' appears in the Celtiberian corpus.: Macrobius, Saturnalia I.19.5 (literary); Celtiberian Botorrita bronze (Neito); Latin dedications Neto/Neto Duecanus (inscription)
- His name has been compared with the Irish war-god Néit, perhaps from a common Celtic root meaning 'passion, conflict'.: J. C. Olivares Pedreño, 'Celtic Gods of the Iberian Peninsula', e-Keltoi 6 (2005) (secondary)